by Jane L. Fryar
Imagine a mouse running loose in Egypt’s granaries during the years of plenty while Joseph stored up multiple tons of grain. (Genesis 41:25 ff.) Imagine that mouse fretting over whether or not it will have enough to eat during the coming famine. Now suppose the mouse could talk with Joseph. Can you imagine Joseph roaring with laughter over the mouse’s concern?
“Don’t worry, little mouse!” Joseph would exclaim. “There will be plenty of food for you! My bookkeepers have lost track of how many cribs we’ve filled! You won’t go hungry! I promise we will have enough for you!”
Without doing anything to save itself, such a mouse would enjoy abundant, overwhelming resources.
It is finished!
Jesus’ shout of victory from the cross declared his sacrifice for our sins complete. It was enough. Charles Wesley captured this thought in these words from his hymn “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”:
Plenteous grace with Thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin . . .
Like the mouse living in Joseph’s grain bins, those who live in Christ find more than enough unmerited favor from the heavenly Father. Jesus’ death covers all, each, and every one of our sins—no matter how many or how serious those sins have been. How do we know this? We know it because of our Lord’s resurrection. The Father brought the Lord Jesus back to life from death. In doing so, he put his stamp of approval on his Son’s sacrifice:
[Christ Jesus] was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. . . . [W]hen we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Romans 4:25; 5:10–-11).
[If] Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. . . . But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:17, 20).
Never enough
Sadly, some children struggle through childhood, hoping—just once—to please a parent, hoping their efforts will result in enough to satisfy that parent’s demands. But nothing they do ever quite measures up in the parent’s eyes. “It’s never enough,” an angry friend recently told me. “I’ve tried my hardest for 38 years, and still I can’t please my dad!”
Sadder still, those who have endured this kind of frustration in childhood sometimes project their parent’s attitudes onto others in authority around them—a co-worker or supervisor, for instance. Or they see God standing in judgment over them like an overbearing parent.
Do you see God like that? like some demanding supervisor in whose eyes you never measure up? It’s true that none of us can obey God’s laws perfectly. We all “fall short” as Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23. But because our Lord Jesus provided the perfect sacrifice for our failures, we can stand before God clothed in holiness, in perfection; Jesus’ holiness, Jesus’ perfection are now credited to our account.
If you have trouble seeing yourself in this light, you might want to take some time to study Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 as you prepare for Easter and as you celebrate it. These two chapters provide extended accounts of our Lord’s suffering, death, and resurrection. Take time to notice these things:
- The point in each chapter where the text pivots—where Christ’s suffering ends and the description of his victory begins.
- The ways in which Jesus accomplishes the heavenly Father’s will in both texts.
- The results, the fruits of victory, that Jesus now distributes to those he loves!
Our Savior’s work was more than enough! The victory he has won for us is more than enough! And now, his grace is more than enough to guide us safely on our journey through this world and on into the glories of heaven it! Bask in that grace!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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Used with permission grant #041008. © 2008 CTA, Inc. No duplication of this devotion is allowed without the express written consent of CTA, PO Box 1205, Fenton, MO 63026. www.CTAinc.com.
